Starting a men’s fitness program is easy. It is staying the course that some people find hard. Many men start-out with the best intentions full of excitement and hope for the future that lies ahead. However, for some the best intentions become just that intentions and the initial excitement can quickly turn to boredom.

It is obvious that the only way to succeed and reach your fitness goal is by staying true to your ambitions, giving-up is not an option. It is too easy!

The biggest favor you can do for yourself before embarking on a men’s fitness program is to be honest with yourself. Take a good look in mirror and be realistic about the challenge ahead, and make no-mistake about it. Getting fit is a challenge!

Once you have realistic expectations then you are better prepared to deal with times when you feel you are going-nowhere and running in sand. However, it should be said that in most cases if you exercise and workout regularly, even if it seems like you are making little outwardly progress, do not worry as your body will be getting fitter internally, and without internal fitness, you can’t look good on the outside.

The first few months of a fitness program are the hardest, progress can be slow which often causes confidence to erode, and the initial zest and hope that you had can turn to doubt and maybe even despair but if you stick to your guns, you will be successful.

In the initial phases of your workout schedule, there are a few things you can do, which will help keep you inspired and focused.

Motivation:

We all have different motivating factors for becoming fit, for some it is the allure of a ripped physique, for others it can be an emotional reason such as the birth of child, and for others it can be health reasons.

Whatever the reason, you need to keep it firmly in the front of your head.

Take some pictures and get on the scales!

Before beginning a men’s fitness program take some pictures of yourself, weight yourself, and gets some measurements. This is a great way to keep yourself motivated, you might not like the thoughts of confronting the ugly truth but it will put fire in your belly.

At times when you feel you are going nowhere or your motivation is waning then a quick look at the before photos and measurements will re-ignite your drive.

Visualization:

Visualization is a technique used by many top athletes in the world to help improve performance but it can also be used to keep you motivated.

When working-out; be it running on a tread mill or pushing weights, visualize the body and physique that you are working towards in your mind’s eye this will help keep you inspired and focused on your end-goal.

Get in the mood!

When you work out your body and mind should be on the same page, working-out if you are bored is not going to provide you with any real benefits.

You should not view workout sessions as a chore, or something that you have to do but if giving the choice you would avoid like the plague.

If you are not enthusiastic about having to workout then you need to turn that frown upside down. Sorry to be so cheesy, but it is true! A positive mental attitude towards fitness and working-out is a vital component of a successful men’s fitness program.

No one said it was easy!

No one ever said that getting fit was easy but half the fun is in the challenge. The worst thing you can do when starting-out is to give-in before you even get-out of the blocks.

Give yourself time it will not happen overnight but with a little perseverance you will get there.

What do I mean when I say this?

Well having successfully trained hundreds of males and females over the years I have made a very important observation when it comes to achieving results.

Before I get into this let me take you through a scenario that is played out every day across most gyms across the planet.

Our fictional character today, Jo Smith goes into her local gym and wants to lose a few pounds and has heard that weight training could possibly be the way forward. Jo goes to the cross trainer and does 20mins at a fairly brisk pace to warm up and gets a good sweat on. She then hovers on the edge of the weights area feeling slightly intimidated to enter for two reasons. Firstly she is not quite sure just what she is supposed to do and secondly, she feels that all the big muscular guys will look at her and make her feel silly.

She also believes she has no right to be there and should probably stick to cardio because it will still make her lose weight if she works hard enough. She stands there thinking about this for another minute and finally plucks up the courage to grab two dumbbells that are lurking on the edge of the weights section.

I see this every day in the gym.

2 x 5kg. “Perfect” she thinks to herself, as she has used the 5′s before so she knows she can do them no problem. Jo tried the 6kg’s once but they were quite a struggle so the 5′s work. She performs 3 sets of 12 reps for lunges then goes over to the machine area and does 3 sets of 12 tricep pressdowns as she wants to tone the back of her arms and 3 sets of lat pulldown. 5mins of abs and a quick stretch and Jo is good to go. She leaves the gym half convincing herself that she had a great session with “weights” but deep down she knows that this isn’t really going to cut the mustard.

Now I know I have this scenario is a little clichéd but it’s actually true for many women across the world.It shouldn’t be like this and to be honest, the reality is actually very different. Somewhere along the way, Jo’s view has been distorted and I want to show you the truth today.The truth is, that all guys totally respect any woman entering the weights area never mind actually training with weights.

When I’ve been training in the gym myself personally and a woman is training I always think to myself, great, there is someone who is doing the right thing and I respect that and so does everyone else.Anyone that doesn’t just doesn’t deserve any attention so ladies, please ignore them

Here lies the next problem.

Once a woman has mustered up the courage to get into the weights room she needs to know what she is doing. It’s no good just grabbing what is free and repeating what you have done countless times before and expecting results. It can’t and won’t ever work.

So here it is, the Pièce de résistance…..Ladies, you need to train like a man to look like a woman.

Whatever you ideal size, weight or shape is, whatever your goals, you need to train hard, heavy and with more aggression than the amount that comes naturally to you. It means picking up the weights that are heavy and stepping out of your comfort zone. It burns and it’s painful. You will sweat loads and your face will twist and contort and you must train like you are trying to get MASSIVE… But the really cool thing is, you won’t! Won’t get massive I mean.

This increased aggression will boost your testosterone levels and what you will get is increased muscle tone, and a leaner, tighter, stronger and sexier body than you can achieve from just about anything else I know

You need to train with big compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, chin ups, dips, bench press and rows to name a few. Exercises that hold the most “bang for your buck”. These compound movements use 3,4 and more muscle groups at once in fact the deadlift pretty much uses every muscle in your body. The more muscle fibres you recruit in a given lift or movement the more your metabolic rate will rise and of course, you will grow new muscle tissue but you won’t ever get too big or too muscular.

This increased metabolism means an increase in calorie expenditure which means you will burn calories even at rest. You can literally be burning calories from a heavy weights session upto 38hrs later due to a complicated process called EPOC.Now THAT is cool, right?

You need to commit to lifting heavy weights 3 times per week with a target or goal in mind. Lose that stone of body fat, drop a dress size or two or get back into that LBD for the ensuing Christmas parties. Is it that time already???

You MUST drink a protein shake after your workout if you want to even think about getting any type of results. This point is non-negotiable. All of these typically male gym traits you MUST adopt if you want the results that you REALLY want. In fact, you need to train harder than the average man because fat loss and muscle gain comes easy for us. You have to dig deep and fight hard for every ounce of precious muscle tissue. You have train hard, eat clean, sleep well and pray to the heavens above that you gain a kg or two of muscle and then and only then will you start to look the way you want to look.Lean, toned and defined.

I can virtually guarantee that any female in the public eye that looks lean and defined has achieved that look with a heavy weights or resistance programme.

Don’t be scared to lift heavy weights!

Train like a man to look like a lean, toned, defined and sexy woman.

See you in the weights room soon.

Gavin

Sometimes my idiot brain jumps into perfectionism and the little idiot voice in my head tells me that because I only have 10 minutes available for a workout that it’s not worth doing.

What do I do when this happens? I don’t work out.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The fact is I’ve had many fantastic 10 minute workouts when time is tight. 7 months ago my wife had a baby. We’ve been busy since then and sometimes all I have is a few 10 minute chunks of time for working out. More often than not, I dive into a super intense 10 minute workout… but sometimes I fall for the “if I can’t work out for 30 or 60 minutes, there’s no point” mentality.

Are 10 minute workouts worth doing?

Absolutely. I’ve gone to the gym for 10 minutes to crank out a super intense superset workout. I’ve never regretted it. Even a short 2-muscle superset routine keeps me on my weight lifting schedule (whether a 3, 4 or 5 day split).

More importantly, by getting in those 10 minute workouts when that’s all the time I have (instead of skipping them), I maintain my momentum. Momentum is an extremely powerful and effective element to working out consistently in the long run.

When I have momentum, I never skip a workout. When I skip a workout or 2 in the past, I’ve lost momentum and end up skipping more workouts until I dig in and get my momentum back.

Multiple 10 minute workouts throughout the day

You may be too busy to fit in a 30 or 60 minute workout, but anyone on any day can scrape together 3 ten minute chunks of time to get in a full regimen throughout the day. Splitting up workouts is great because you can do super intense sessions.

In fact, I’ve had many 3 mini workout session days. I’ll start with a 10 minute stretching routine in the morning. Do an intense 10 minute weight lifting superset routine at lunch. I’ll end the day with 10 minutes of HIIT outside my home or on my treadmill. Bang, that’s 30 minutes of fitness covering all the bases. The best part is it hardly feels like I worked out in the time-sense. It also results in highly focused and intense sessions.

10 minute workout examples

The sky is the limit once you open your mind up to doing 10 minute workouts.

The starting point is to break it down into weight lifting, cardio and stretching. I do all three weekly (often in the same workout or on the same day).

10 minute weight lifting workout routines

I find the best way to do 10 minute weight lifting workouts is to do supersets.

A sample 10 minute weight lifting workout for chest and back is as follows:

3 sets of each of the following supersets:

Bench press / Seated rows
Incline DB press / Lat pull downs

Do them with 15 to 20 seconds rest between supersets.

You can create similar supersets for all muscle groups in a multi-day split.

10 minute cardio workouts

Probably the best short cardio workouts are high intensity interval training workouts. These are where you work out at maximum intensity for 10 to 90 seconds, followed by 10 to 60 seconds of low intensity. In 10 minutes you can get in a sweaty, intense cardio workout. The following is an example 10 minute HIIT workout on a treadmill:

60 second warm up at 65% maximum heart rate.
60 second sprint (7 to 10 mph).
30 second walk (3 to 4 mph).
60 second sprint30 second walk
60 second sprint
30 second walk
90 second fast run
60 second walk
60 second sprint
60 second walk/cool down

You can adjust the time intervals and intensity according to your ability. The sprint sessions should be high intensity. If that’s walking at 4 mph on an incline, that’s fine. It’s the intensity that matters.

10 minute yoga/stretching workouts

Many people don’t bother stretching at all. I think that’s a big mistake. I find being flexible improves my life as well as my workouts and athleticism.

On the flip side, you don’t have to stretch for 30 or 60 minutes every day to benefit. I often restrict my stretching/yoga routines to 10 minutes.

The goal of any stretching/yoga routines is to hit each of the major stretching motions, which are:

forward bend
Backward bend
InversionTwist
Balance pose
Standing

For ten minute yoga routines, I may forego standing and balance postures or emphasize them. The key is to get in a great forward stretch, backward bend, inversion and a twist.

A sample 10 minute yoga routine is as follows:

3 sun salutations (forward bend, plank, downward dog, lunge both legs, downward dog, forward bend – do each for 1 breath) – 3 minutes
Seated forward bend: 30 seconds
Seated twist (30 seconds both sides)
Cobra (60 seconds)
Seated V-forward bend (30 seconds)
Seated V-sideways bend (30 seconds each side)
Butterfly (30 seconds)
Shoulder stand (60 seconds)
Fish pose (30 seconds)
Savasana (rest pose – 60 seconds)

The above is just an example. You can create many 10 minute yoga workout variations. As you can see, all the major movements are included (even standing with the lunges during the sun salutations).

If you have a 20 minute session only in a given day, you can consider supersetting your yoga workouts with weight lifting sessions.

The cumulative effect is what counts

Even if your life is insanely busy, getting in 1, 2, or 3 ten minute workouts each day will result in a fitter you in the long run. Don’t fall for the trap in thinking that you must have 30, 60 or 90 minutes for a workout deter you from getting and remaining fit. It’s like working – working harder/longer isn’t necessarily better than working smarter. The same applies to fitness.